Shirt collar



April 13, 1954 H. c. DONALDSON, JR 2,674,741

SHIRT COLLAR Filed March 21, 1951 FIG. 8 FIG.9

INVENTOR. HARRY c. DONALDSON JR ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 13, 1954 SHIRTCOLLAR Harry (J. Donaldson, Jr., Brunswick, N.

Y., as-

signor to Cluett, Peabody & 00., Inc., Troy, N. Y., a corporation of NewYork Application March 21, 1951, Serial No. 216,789

5 Claims.

This invention relates to shirts, and more particularly to the collarsthereof. The points in the ends of collars have a strong tendency, whenworn by some men, to curl forwardly and upwardly and present anunsightly appearance, whereas when the same types of collars are worn byother men, there is but little tendency for the points to curl. This isapparently due to the fact that with some men the collar points do notseem to bear on the shirt front with any ap preciable pressure, whereaswith other men the collar points bear upon the shirt front and areflexed upwardly by the pressure and take a set. Some soft collars havethe points held down by buttons or other fasteners, and others provideremovable stays or stiffeners which resist curling of the collar points.

An object of this invention is to provide an improved collarconstruction with which the collar points, if flexed, will tend, whenreleased, to return to their normal straight or uncurled condition;which will require no parts that must be removed when the collar is tobe laundered; which will require no special fastening means, such asbuttons, to hold the points down; which may be used in fused or softtypes of collars; which will not cause any undue rubbing of the collarpoints on the shirt front; which will be relatively simple and easy toincorporate in the manufacturing methods now in practice in makingcollars, and which will be practical and relatively inexpensive.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved collarconstruction in which the top or folded over portion of a collar willnormally present a smooth appearance, and its pointed ends willeffectively resist curling; in which, the points, if flexed, will havean elastic snap-back or tendency to return to a straight or unfiexedcondition, and which may be incorporated easily in either soft or fusedtypes of collars.

.A. further object of the invention is to provide an improved method ofmaking collars with curlresistant points.

Oher objects and advantages will be apparent from the followingdescription of two embodiments of the invention, and the novel featureswill be particularly pointed out hereinafter in connection with theappended claims.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan of a two-piece shirt collar constructed in accordancewith this invention;

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic section, on a very large scale, through theface'ply or fabric of a multiple-ply webbing fabric, which may be usedas a part of this collar, the section being taken approximately alongthe line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a section similar to Fig. 2, also of a heavy or relativelythick fabric used as a face fabric of the collar of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a transverse sectional elevation through the front and backfabrics of the top part of the collar as first assembled and connectedin accordance with one form of the invention;

Fig. 5 is a similar cross-section after the connected face and backfabrics have been turned inside out and inverted, so as to conceal theraw seam;

Fig. 6 is a sectional elevation similar to Fig. 4, but after the faceand back fabrics of the collar top have been further stitched togetherand bonded; and

Figs. 7, 8 and 9 are sections similar, respectively, to Figs. 4, 5 and 6except that the film of resinous material is first disposed to abutagainst the thicker face fabric when first assembled.

In accordance with this invention, and referring first to Figs. 1 to 6,the collar 1 includes the top part 2 and the neck-band part 3, which,when of two pieces, are connected together edge to edge, with the edgeof the top part received between the outer and inner plies of theneckband 3, as usual in two piece collars. The top part 2 of the collaris formed of a face fabric 4 and a back or rear fabric 5, which abutface to face and are secured together along their abutting faces by asuitable bonding agent that is interposed between the fabrics, such as afilm or a coating of water-insoluble, plastic, resinous material whichhas the property of recovering, when free, from minor elongations. Thisresinous material is advantageously applied as a surface coating or film6 to the inside face of the rear face 5.

The face fabric 4 is substantially thicker than the rear fabric 5, andmay be either a multipleply fabric, such as shown in Fig. 2, or theusual single ply fabric, such as shown in Fig. 3. In the multiple-plyfabric, shown diagrammatically in Fig. 2, the weft yarns 1 areinterwoven with warp yarns 8 to form one ply, and warp threads 9 arewoven with weft threads ID to form the other ply. These two plies lieface to face and are united by a binder warp yarn H, which is interwovenbetween the weft yarns of the two plies. Such a fabric is considerablythicker than the ordinary single ply shirting fabric, such as is usedfor the back fabric 5. The regularly woven fabric 4 (Fig. 3) that may beused as the face fabric is woven of warp yarns 4a and weft yarns 41),both of heavier or thicker yarns than the yarns used. in rear fabric 5and, therefore, the face fabric 4 shown in Fig. 3 is substantiallythicker than the ordinary shirting fabric 5 which is used as the rearfabric.

Blanks are cut from sheets of these fabrics 4 and 5 of the desiredshapes for the top portion of the collar, and the coating 6 of suitableresinous material that may be bonded by dry or wet fusing to othertextile fabrics is applied to one face only of the fabric 5. Thiscoating 6 is a relatively thin coating or film that is continuous overat least the end portions of the top portion of the collar, andpreferably over the entire area. of one This coating 6 may face of therear fabric be a separately formed, thin film of resinous material,which is merely brought face to face with the rear fabric 5 as shown inFig. 4, or it may be a coating applied to the fabric 5 in any othersuitable manner. If desired, the film may be apertured or there may beareas of no coating or film at intervals over the face of the fabric 5but, in such cases, there should be substantial continuous areas of thecoating or film. While it is only essential that the film or coating 6be applied to substantial end areas of the top portion, includingthepoints, the film or coating may advantageously be applied over .theentire top portion of the collar.

The face fabric 4 and rear fabric 5 are brought together, face to facein the manner shown in Fig. 4, with the film or coating 5 on the outsideor exposed face of the rear fabric 5. These fabrics and the coating orfilm 5 are then stitched together by a line of stitching l2, whichv isalong the end edges and the free side edge of the top portion of thecollar. This top portion of the collar, so formed, is next turned insideout and inverted from the Fig. 4 position so as to assume therelationship and position hownin Fig. 5, where the film or coating 6 nowis disposedbetween the front and rear fabrics 4 and 5. The film orcoating 5 is preferably extended to the free edge of the fabric 5,-asshown in Fig. 4, so that when the top portion is turned inside out andinverted, as shown in Fig. 5, the film or coating 5 will be doubled orfolded back upon itself in the seam so as to have a double thicknessalong the seam as shown in Fig. 5. The two fabrics 4 and 5 at the seam,when the top portion is turned inside out, form a re-entrant part of thetop portion or edge of the collar. The fabrics and film or coating ofthe top portion 2, assembled in the manner shown in Fig. 5, are thenconnected by a further line of stitching [3 that is adjacent to,

but spaced from, the stitching l2, as shown in Fig. 6, and pressed.

The coating or film 6 of resinous material, which is now interposedbetween the front and rear fabrics 4 and 5, is then bonded totheabutting faces of fabric-t and 5 in any suitable manner, such as either.dry or solventfusing. In.

dry fusing,.thetop portion of the .collar, assembled and prepared asshown in Fig. 6, is placed in a press, and pressed while being heated,with the heat high enough to soften the resinous material until thelatter becomes tacky and upon cooling adheres to the inside faces of thefront andrear fabrics 4 and 5. If the fabrics 4 and 5 are to be unitedby solvent fusing, a suitable solvent for the resinous .material isapplied to the assembled fabrics, as .shown in. Fig. 6, and

after a short interval of time, duringwhich the. solvent can act. onthe, resinous materialand soften it, the fabrics 5 and 5 are pressedtogether in a press, which evaporates the solvent while the plies areunder pressure, and the resinous material is soft and tacky enough toadhere to the fabrics 4 and 5.

In the form of the invention shown in Figs. 7, 8 and 9 the constructionis the same as described in connection with Figs. 4, 5 and 6 except thatwhen the fabrics 4 and 5 are first brought together, the film or coating6 is disposed against or applied to an outside face of the front fabric4, instead of the rear fabric 5. The fabrics 4 and 5 and resinousmaterial 6 are stitched together by a line of stitching E2 to form thetop portion of the collar, and then the parts, assembled as shown inFig. '7, are turned inside out and in verted to assume the relationshipand position shown in Fig. 8, which creates the re-entrant edge andconceals the raw seam that was formed in 7. The fabrics, assembled asshown in Fig. 8, are then pressed together face to face and a furtherline of stitching 13 applied to unite them. The fabrics ii and 5,assembled and united as in Fig. 9, are then bonded together through theresinous material, with either wet or dry fusing, and. then the topportion is ready for attachment to the neckband portion.

While any suitable water-insoluble, plastic, flexible, resinous materialthat has the property of recovering from minor elongations may beemployed, the synthetic resins are particularly useful. A. plasticizermay be employed with the resinous material, wherever desirous ornecessary in order to give it the desired plasticity or cause theresinous material to bond under any desired heat or pressure, eitherwith or without the presence of the solvent.

By way of example, but without limitations, examples of some suitablecoatings for a dry fusing composition are as follows:

Example 1 Parts by weight Methyl methacrylate 2 Tri-cresyl phosphate 1Ethylene glycol mono-butyl ether l Coating weight on one side only, 1 /2to 2 /2 ounces persquare yard.

This composition may be applied as a film to the back fabric 5 in anysuitable manner, but one practical and inexpensive method is to dissolvethis composition of Example 1 in a suitable solvent such as methyl ethylketone, until it becomes a jelly, and then this jelly is applied to thefabric as a uniform thickness film in a manner well known in theindustry. For example, the coated fabric may be passed under a doctorblade which scrapes off the excess jelly above a desired thickness offilm on the fabric. The thickness of film is so gauged that the coatedweight of the resinous composition on one side only of thefabric, wouldbe about 1 to 2 ounces per square yard.

Example 2 Parts by weight Cellulose acetate 2 Ethyl phthalyl ethylglycollate l.

Coating weight on one side only-4V to 2 /2 ounces per'square yard.

This compositionis mixed with a solvent until a jelly is formed, andthen it can be applied as a coating to the fabric in the same manner.

Examples suitable for solvent fusing are as follows:

Coating weight on one side only-1 to 2 ounces per square yard.

Example 4 Parts by weight Cellulose acetate 4 Ethyl phthalyl ethylglycollate l Coating weight-4 to 2 ounces per square yard.

In Examples 3 and 4 the resinous compositions are combined with asolvent to facilitate application to the fabric, and may conveniently beapplied as explained above by dissolving the composition in a solventuntil a jelly is formed and then applying this jelly to a face of thefabric. The use of jelly instead of a thin solution in forming thecoating has an advantage, in that the jelly does not penetrate into thefabric by capillary action, and therefore, would remain as a thinsurface layer and would thus not greatly penetrate the back ply to whichit is applied, but would remain largely as a surface coating even afterfusing it to another ply. Other soluble resins with suitableplasticizers may be also employed and applied in the same or anysuitable manner. A preferable type of resin is one which has a minimumof chlorine retention when the collars so made are laundered.

The term resinous material is also intended to include within its scopethe various rubber and rubber-like compositions, such as natural rubberand the so-called synthetic rubbers or rubber substitutes, butyl rubber,polyethylene, nylon, vinyl plastics such as vinyl acetate-chloridecopolymers, polyvinyl acetals such as polyvinyl formal and polyvinylbutyral.

It will be further noted that the film or coating 6 is largely a surfacecoating or layer on the relatively thin rear fabric 5, and since thefront or face fabric 4 is a heavier and thicker fabric than the rearfabric 5, the bonding layer 6 of resinous material is disposed at oneside of the neutral axis plane AA of the composite top portion of thecollar, and in a plane nearer the rear or under-face of the collar thanthe front face. In other words, the film or layer 6 is materially offcenter from the neutral axis plane AA in the composite collar top thatis formed of united fabrics 4 and 5. When such a composite collar isflexed to make the heavier face fabric 4 concave, which happens, forexample, when the collar points are flexed forwardly and upwardly orcurl outwardly and upwardly, about half of the flexed part of the collaron the concave side of a center line or neutral axis plane A-A aboutmidway between the faces of the collar tab, will be compressed in adirection gen erally along the surface of the collar, and the other halfat the convex side or along rear fabric of the flexed part will betensioned or stretched. Due to the elasticity of the resinous or bindinglayer 6, such a flexed part of the composite collar will have a yieldingtendency to recover its former condition from such minor elongations, orto return to a flat or unflexed condition, and it will do so whenreleased. Hence, when the flexing force on the collar points is removed,the ,points will have a decided tendency to straighten out or uncurl,and resume their former fiat condition.

As illustrated in Fig. 6, where the joined edges of the plies arere-entrant along stitching l2, there will be two thicknesses of theresinous coating 6 abutting the one thickness of the relatively thinrear fabric 5, and there will be one thickness of the rear fabric 5 andtwo thicknesses of the relatively thick face fabric 4 disposed in frontof the resinous coating along the end and outer edges of the top sectionof the composite collar. The resinous film or layer along the end andouter edges of the collar top will thus be even further 01f center fromneutral axis A-A., toward the underface than the balance of the collartop, so as to be tensioned or stretched when the collar points areflexed forwardly and upwardly. The converging edges that form the pointsof the collar will thus have even greater resistance to forward flexingor upward curling than the main area of the collar top.

It has been found that a collar top portion formed in this manner willnot wrinkle or our] at the points, but the points will flex freely andnot cause undue wear on the front of the shirt. While the invention hasbeen described and illustrated, for simplicity, as applied to a twopiece collar, it will be understood that a similar procedure may befollowed in the manufacture of the so-called one piece collars, wherethe neckband and top portion are formed of fabric blanks that arecontinuous through both the neckband and top portions.

It will be understood that various changes in the details, materials,and arrangements of parts, which have been herein described andillustrated in order to explain the nature of the invention, may be madeby those skilled in the art, within the principle and scope of theinvention as expressed in the appended claims.

This application is a continuation in part of my copending application,Serial No. 145,768, filed February 23, 1950 now abandoned.

I claim:

1. A shirt collar formed of a neck band portion, and a top portionextending from the neck band portion and having curl-resistant points,said top portion comprising a face member and a rear member disposed inface to face relation, said face member being substantially thicker thanthe rear member, and the abutting inside faces only of said members,being bonded together by a layer of water-insoluble, plastic, flexibleresinous material capable, when released following tension of recoveringits form from minor elongations, interposed between said members, said.layer of material being largely on the surfaces of the faces afterbonding, approximately continuous over the bonded faces, and at the rearside of the plane midway between the outer faces of said top portion.

2. A shirt collar formed of a neck band portion, and a top portionextending from the neck band portion and having curl-resistant points,said top portion comprising a relatively thick face layer of fabric anda relatively thin rear layer of fabric superposed face to face andconnected with a reentrant seam along its ends and free side edge, theinside surfaces of said layers bordering said seam along said ends beingbonded together by an interposed layer of water-insoluble pastic,flexible, resinous material capable, when tensioned and released, ofrecovering its form from minor elongations, said layer of materialextending into the said re-entrant seam and after bonding being disposedlargely on the surfaces of the faces of the fabric layers to which it isbonded,

and largely to one side of a plane midway between the outside faces ofsaid top portion.

3. The method of making a collar top with curlresistant points, whichcomprises bringing a rear member and a thicker face member of a collartop together face to face, with the outside faces of the membersabutting, disposing a film of water-insoluble, plastic, resinousmaterial, of a type which when tensioned for small elongations and thenreleased will recover its form, on the exposed face of one of theabutting members, approximately continuous over the full width of thetop, stitching said members and film together in this face to facerelation to form the top, turning the top inside out to bring the filmbetween the members, and then bonding said film to the inside faces ofthe abutting members, with the film retaining largely its physical form,and remaining largely on the surface of the abutting members which itbonds together.

4. A shirt collar formed of a neckband portion. and a top portionextending from the neckband portion and having curl-resistant points,said top portion comprising a fabric face member and a fabric rearmember disposed in face to face relation and united to each other, saidface member being substantially thicker than the rear member, and afilm-like layer of a water-insoluble, plastic, flexible, resinousmaterial, capable, when tensioned and released, of recovering its formfrom minor elongations, interposed between said members and extendingapproximately continuously from the neckband portion to the points ofthe collar and from each end edge of the collar a substantial distancetowards the other end edge of the collar, said layer being bonded overapproximately its entire face area to the portions of the faces of themembers with which it is in contact, said layer being largely betweensaid members after bonding, and at the rear side of the plane midwaybetween the outer faces of said top portion.

5. A shirt collar formed of a neckband portion, and a top portionextending from the neckband portion and having curl-resistant points,said top portion comprising a relatively thick face layer of fabric andrelatively thin rear layer of fabric superposed face to face, the freeside and end edges of said face and rear layers being folded backbetween the layers and the folded back edges being stitched together,and a layer of waterinsoluble, plastic, flexible, resinous materialcapable, when tensioned and released of recovering its form from minorelongations, disposed between said face and rear fabric layers andbetween the rear layer and its folded back edge, said layer of resinousmaterial being bonded to the faces of said face and rear layers which itabuts, and after bonding being largely on the surface of said face andrear layers, and at the rear side of a plane midway between the outsidefaces of the top portion, whereby the layer of resinous material will betensioned when the collar points are flexed upwardly, so as to exert asubstantial snap back force on the collar points.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 1,968,409 Liebowitz July 31, 1934 1,995,187 Lind et a1 Mar.19, 1935 2,046,885 Strain July '7, 1936 2,152,094 Rubinstein Mar. 28,1939 2,286,510 Rubinstein June 16, 1942 2,418,716 Kennedy Apr. 8, 19472,467,438 McBurney Apr. 19, 1949 2,536,050 Fluck Jan. 2, 1951

